Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works Anime Review

This post is by guest writer Sam Gubitz.

Almost Too Perfect

Ufotable’s Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works is the most recent anime adaptation to stem from the 2004 visual novel, Fate/Stay Night, itself a product of Japanese developer Type-Moon’s Nasuverse, a collection of visual and light novels, video games, manga, and anime all set in the same magical universe. Unlimited Blade Works itself is adapted from one of the three “paths” available to players of the original light novel, with the other two titled Fate — adapted by Studio Deen in 2006 — and Heaven’s Feel, which is soon to be adapted into an anime film by Ufotable, which will conclude its three adaptations of the Fate universe, which began with 2011’s Fate/Zero, the prequel to Fate/Stay Night.

With all of that information serving as the foundation on which this series stands, it can be rather daunting for a newcomer to approach the series. For what it’s worth, I strongly recommend that anyone interested in this series check out Fate/Zero first, as Ufotable seems to have crafted their Unlimited Blade Works adaptation with clear intentions of having emotional payoff with the events of the prequel in mind. Now, with all of that in mind, this review is intended to be read by those familiar with the Fate/Zero anime, and thus contains spoilers to that series within. However, all major spoilers regarding Unlimited Blade Works are avoided whenever possible.

Unlimited Blade Works has lovingly received the nickname, “Unlimited Budget Works”, by its fans for its lavish animation and superb soundtrack, both of which I cannot find fault with. When the sound and animation are perfectly in sync, there are few anime that do it better. While this commendation is well earned, Unlimited Blade Works is not without its faults. Seemingly out of respect for the source material from which it was adapted, Ufotable made the questionable decision to make this series a near perfect adaptation, a goal that many similarly adapted series purposefully avoid. In pursuit of achieving a perfect adaptation, Unlimited Blade Works suffers from occasionally poor pacing, plot lines that are started and stopped with seemingly no regard to the larger story, and characters who are robbed of any significance by virtue of the fact that this simply isn’t their story. Even so, Unlimited Blade Works still manages to deliver emotional catharsis, fight scenes, and a wealth of interesting characters unparalleled by most.

Episodes 0-1 Review

The prologue of Unlimited Blade Works is quite possibly one of the most interesting in any anime that I’ve seen recently. The first two episodes, both double the length of a typical anime episode, serve as two different perspectives of the same day, providing valuable insight into the lives of our two protagonists — Shirou Emiya and Rin Tohsaka — and the war they both find themselves fighting. In this first act of the series, the viewer is bombarded with a massive amount of information to process. We’re quickly introduced to our two aforementioned protagonists, the Holy Grail War, Shirou and Rin’s respective motivations for fighting in the war, and the Heroic Spirits who do most of the battling for their respective Masters. And all of this is done implicitly, through brief conversations or quick asides, rather than explicitly laying out everything for the audience all at once; the audience’s intelligence is respected enough that the series assumes most will come to understand by continuing to watch events unfold.

It’s this implicit introduction to the series, and its sheer length, that allows us the luxury of really getting to understand our protagonists, Shirou and Rin. We learn that Rin is the heiress of a family of mages who have been fighting for the Holy Grail for decades. She’s spunky, stubborn, and perhaps wise beyond her years. Shirou, on the other hand, is introduced to us as a hard working, kind young man who seems to be always ready and able to help someone else. Throughout the hour and a half introduction, we learn that these two share something in common, both lost their fathers, either during the events of Fate/Zero or immediately following it, and now inherit their respective legacies.

As the Holy Grail War comes to fruition, Shirou is seemingly killed by one of the other Heroic Spirits, Lancer, and quickly resurrected by Rin. Soon after, Shirou finds himself as the unwitting Master of Saber, the same gender-bent King Arthur that his father, Kiritsugu, partnered with during the events of Fate/Zero. As Saber and Rin’s servant, Archer, clash outside the Emiya residence, Shirou and Rin find themselves as competitors in a war for the omnipotent wish-granting Holy Grail.

This first act, while simultaneously fast-paced and yet slow enough for the viewer to feel comfortable with the two protagonists and their struggles, foreshadows some of the problems to come. For instance, while Shirou and Rin are exquisitely introduced and expounded upon heavily during these first two episodes, we’re also introduced to a bevy of characters that, quite literally, don’t matter. By introducing us to their school, Rin and Shirou’s classmates are introduced one-by-one, for seemingly no purpose whatsoever. While some are obviously foreshadowed to have some importance to the larger story, like the blue-haired Shinji that comes into conflict with both our protagonists throughout their respective days, others are simply red herrings. Shinji’s sister, Sakura, is featured heavily in this first act for almost no reason other than to introduce her as someone who could have been important, if only you weren’t watching this specific path of Fate/Stay Night. As I understand it, Sakura is most important in the Heaven’s Feel route, where she effectively replaces Rin as the female protagonist, leaving her with nearly nothing to do in Unlimited Blade Works.

This small problem, while annoying in one or two instances, leads me to my biggest critique of this series, what I call the “Perfect Adaptation Fallacy”, or PAF. In essence, PAF is what happens when a studio like Ufotable tries to do the impossible — perfectly adapt a source material into a different medium. By taking a single visual novel path and sticking to it so closely, Ufotable succeeds in not offending those who are most familiar with the source material, but at the cost of including storylines that are underwhelming because they’re plots that are featured best in other paths. The only problem is, the audience can’t experience those other paths simultaneously with Unlimited Blade Works, leaving many scratching their heads as to why someone like Sakura is even in the show to begin with. But, Unlimited Blade Works seems content to leave us wanting more as it tirelessly recreates every scene, character, and aborted plot from the original visual novel, even if that means degrading the overall quality of the anime.

This is a beautiful and fast-paced introduction that doesn’t apologize for what it is.

Now, with all that said, this is still an excellent start to this series, and other series of similar size should take notes, especially in regards to how to properly introduce their protagonists without insulting the intelligence of their audience. Further, the animation alone in this introduction was enough to keep me interested as I studied every background, character design, and landscape I could set my eyes on. The brief battles between the few heroic spirits we’re introduced to are exquisite, to say the least. Bright and vibrant colors are splashed across the screen as heroic figures from all across human history battle, and this inclusion of color is much appreciated in a day and age where dark, gritty styles are copied and pasted from one series to the next. In short, this is a beautiful, in both the visual and emotional sense, and fast-paced introduction that doesn’t apologize for what it is, and that’s something I can appreciate — even if it leaves me bewildered as to the reasons for some creative decisions.

Episodes 2-7 Review

Act two of Unlimited Blade Works takes care to lay out the exposition explicitly, a necessary step accomplished via explanations to Shirou from either Rin, Saber, or Kirei Kotomine, Rin’s mentor and official moderator of the Holy Grail War. However, in this act, PAF rears its ugly head, especially in regards to Kotomine. He had a huge role to play in Fate/Zero and yet seems to be relegated to a smaller role in this series, with little attention paid to his relationship with Rin and Shirou’s respective fathers.

That critique aside, this exposition is done well and doesn’t drag on for very long before we’re thrown into a legitimate threat in the form of a young girl named Illyasviel and her servant, Berserker — a towering madman who is seemingly immortal. This first legitimate battle of the War is a crash course for the audience and Shirou, as the stakes of this Holy Grail War are laid bare for all to see. Berserker is a legitimate existential threat, easily besting Archer and Saber’s efforts, and is quickly crowned the greatest contestant of the War by both Rin and Archer. This storytelling strategy has the unique effect of putting real terror into the audience, a staple of the Fate series, wherein it feels like anyone can die at the drop of a hat.

However, this high point is premature, as the rest of the second act falls into the mundane. While it’s interesting to watch Rin go around investigating other Masters, or watching Shirou hilariously interact with his friends as Saber follows him around town, the plot feels like it doesn’t go anywhere particularly interesting, especially when compared to the massive threat that our protagonists were just faced with mere episodes before. Thankfully, our protagonists quickly discover that the Heroic Spirit Caster has been draining many of the city’s citizens of their very life force in order to gain more mana, but this brief conflict falls apart as quickly as its introduced.

Now, whereas Assassin — Caster’s own summoned Heroic Spirit — is a great threat because his credibility is established from the start as he stands toe-to-toe with Saber, Caster falls flat. And while Berkser left me begging to see him in action further down the road, Caster left me wondering why anyone should care about her plots and schemes at all, given that we already know she can be beaten handedly by our protagonists.

The War isn’t what we should be paying attention to — it’s Archer.

Even though Caster’s introduction falls flat, this second act introduces us to the real conflict of the series, the one that defines the themes and morals that run throughout. After Caster’s escape, Archer quickly moves to strike down Shirou, who he seemingly despises for reasons unknown to the audience. It’s this interesting twist in the story that quickly shows us that the War itself isn’t what we should be paying attention to — most of the contestants don’t even have a wish to be granted anyways. Rather, we should be watching Archer.

Episodes 8-12 Review

Unfortunately, the next conflict is almost entirely featured at the school both Rin and Shirou attend as Shinji, himself the Master of Rider, attempts to literally murder everyone in his high school in an attempt to siphon mana for himself. And as quickly as it starts, that conflict ends in the most anticlimactic fashion possible, leaving Rider as the first casualty of the War, and yet another victim of PAF. This is the least insulting victim of PAF as it feels appropriate, relative to the threat that Shinji offered.

Throughout this mini-conflict, it quickly becomes apparent that there’s going to be a legitimate romance between Rin and Shirou. While this romance doesn’t come out of nowhere, it makes it very apparent that this anime is adapted from a visual novel wherein romance is an important aspect. Again, this romance is not offensive in the slightest and it’s well earned, but it just feels a little disconnected from the rest of the plot, at least at this point in the story.

While this act is the slowest of the series, it does a great job of introducing the real central conflict of the series, Shirou’s internal conflict with his ideals. As he explains, he desires to be a Hero of Justice, as his father Kiritsugu wanted to be, in order to “save everyone”. However, as Archer — who acts as Shirou’s foil from here on out — explains, the act of saving someone almost necessitates that you cannot save someone else, if only from a practical complication of not having enough time to save everyone at once.

Besides this internal crisis, Caster acts as the current primary antagonist, unfortunately. Again, it’s just hard to take her seriously or care about her various motivations when we’ve seen her defeated already. In any event, her antics introduce her master, one of Rin and Shirou’s teachers, Kazuki, into the series as a surprisingly interesting character. His combat prowess is a nice surprise from an otherwise dull series of conflicts with Caster, but it still can’t save Caster from being a very boring villain for this series. Even so, when she manages to steal away Saber from Shirou’s pact, Caster inadvertently instigates the real conflict of the series into its next act.

Episodes 13-17 Review

Whilst trying to forge alliances with other masters in order to take on Caster and her imposing garrison, Rin and Shirou approach Illya, who had been missing for nearly the entire past 10 episodes, leaving me to forget that Berserker was actually a legitimate threat at one point. However, her reappearance is laughable, as the famed Gilgamesh, a leftover combatant from the events of Fate/Zero, makes short work of Berserker in a few minutes. Now, while this action is the quickest means of introducing Gilgamesh as the new primary antagonist, it also cheapens the worth of two fairly major characters. Again, we’re left with a plot line that was introduced and went nowhere over the course of a single episode. It’s frustrating, to say the very least, because these characters do matter and yet Unlimited Blade Works treats them like trash that needs to be brushed to the side. Had Ufotable decided to take some liberties with this story, maybe a few of these premature storylines could have been more satisfying.

That aside, we’re treated to a really great character in the form of Lancer, who besides trying to kill Shirou twice, had been missing up until this point. The forthright Heroic Spirit quickly makes an alliance with Rin and Shirou as the trio assault Caster’s stronghold for a final bout. Furthermore, Lancer’s fight with Archer is easily one of the series’ best despite its relatively short length; the sheer amount of destruction is a sight to behold. However, as Caster’s role comes to an end and her past is revealed to us, I was left wondering why I should have cared at all about her; she stopped being interesting almost from the start of her introduction. Now, whereas Caster was a distraction, Archer is arguably the ultimate antagonist of the entire series as he reveals his true nature and challenges Shirou and his very reason for existing.

Episodes 18-21 Review

This fifth act of the series is the best, plain and simple. Not much happens in terms of the number of events, but the physical and philosophical battles that take place between Shirou and Archer easily take up four episodes of content without feeling overly long. To be fair, there are other important events that occur, along with another disappointment in the shape of what amounts to a red herring antagonist. But, by and large, Shirou’s internal battle is the crux of this act, even if seeing Lancer send Shinji flying is one of my favorite things to watch on a loop. So, without giving away any spoilers or detailing a moment-by-moment breakdown of the fight, it’s important to cover the moralistic underpinnings of this battle and how it brings certain elements of Fate/Zero full circle in an incredibly cathartic manner.

This fifth act of the series is the best, plain and simple.

Essentially, this argument comes down to whether or not it’s possible to literally save everyone, which is Shirou’s definition of being a “Hero of Justice”. As multiple characters have stated throughout the series up until this point, however, that’s an impossible dream. If you try to save everyone, Archer argues that you’ll end up a machine who finds no joy in life and is actually forced to take lives in order to save even more lives down the road. This is the central conflict that Kiritsugu ran into in Fate/Zero, which ultimately undid his entire life and left him with nothing but regrets.

But, even more damning for Shirou, besides the fact that his ideal is impossible, is that it’s really not even his ideal to begin with! It’s a borrowed ideal from his adoptive father. Shirou’s dream is a sham born from admiration, and admiration is the state furthest from understanding. Even so, as Shirou realizes during his battle in the incredibly animated inner world of the titular Unlimited Blade Works, a dream born from admiration is not inherently wrong.

Although it’s been made into a joke by the internet at large, Shirou’s denouncement of Archer in which he states that, “just because you’re right doesn’t mean you’re correct”, is spot on. Even if someone is technically right, it does not mean that they are morally justified. Because of that desire to keep moving forward, represented visually by the number of times the series cuts to a shot of Shirou literally standing his ground, Shirou cannot lose to himself. When this battle reaches its end, you know that you just watched something truly special.

Episodes 22-26 Review

Following the high point that was the fifth act, the sixth and final act can only act as a clean up act, in which all the loose ends are tied up in a nice package for everyone. If Gilgamesh is at all dissatisfying as a primary antagonist, it’s because he’s not meant to be the primary one at all. But, to be fair, he is the only appropriate villain for this series; he’s literally the antithesis of the selfless Shirou.

But before the final confrontation, there’s a brief reprieve in which a few loose ends are tied up. Rin and Shirou solidify their relationship through an appropriately awkward exchange of mana. Meanwhile, Saber’s minor plot, another victim of PAF, is tied up fairly nicely when she decides to abandon her dream of undoing her past and live with herself and the consequences of her actions in life. Although, it is frustrating that it’s never explained to Shirou that Saber was Kiritsugu’s servant during the events of Fate/Zero.

In the final battle, Saber faces off against Assassin, Shirou faces off against Gilgamesh in his own Unlimited Blade Works, and Rin saves Shinji. Rin saves Shinji — that’s right. I couldn’t believe that they were even wasting energy trying to save Shinji, who was literally one of the worst people in the entire series. It’s heavily implied that he sexually assaulted a classmate earlier in the season, he tried to kill his entire school, and he nearly tried to sexually assault Rin. And they decide to save him. Now, I understand that this action is a testament to the fact that Shirou’s dream can be realized and that everyone, even awful people, can be saved. Even so, it doesn’t sit well with me and left a bad taste in my mouth.

In a stunning conclusion, Shirou’s final encounter with Gilgamesh is a flashy display of nearly perfect animation and sound design. The two clashing their blades in the desolate wasteland that is Unlimited Blade Works sounded like two machine guns firing and was incredibly satisfying to hear and see. Although a slightly deus ex machina ending mars the proceedings a little bit, it doesn’t rob the proceedings of its significance.

The epilogue to the series, a very calm and quiet affair that brings closure to nearly every remaining storyline, also reminded me of Unlimited Blade Works’s more frustrating qualities. Seeing Shirou’s classmates again reminded me that none of these people were important in the slightest. But, my issues with PAF, aside, much of this episode acts as fan service for those familiar with the larger Fate universe, so many viewers might be left scratching their heads at the introduction of many of these new faces. Overall though, this quiet close to an otherwise flashy series brings much needed closure for its remaining combatants and the audience, allowing us to look ahead hopefully with these characters as they move into their respective futures.

Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works is not perfect. It may be a perfect adaptation of its source material but that does not make it a perfect anime. In fact, by faithfully reproducing the visual novel, the anime suffers dearly from characters and plot lines that seemingly start and stop on a dime, simply because this was not their story. Had Ufotable decided to either cut certain characters or step outside of their bounds and add a few more details for a few major characters, many of my frustrations would be eliminated entirely. Because, other than Caster’s lackluster plot, everything was great in this show. The animation was remarkable, the sound design was spot on, and the writing was almost everything it needed to be. When everything works, this series cannot be matched. Overall, Unlimited Blade Works is imperfect, like many of its characters, but it’s unapologetically so, and that’s just fine.